Wednesday, December 17, 2008

10 years back people joked when you talked about Linux. 98% of the IT guys in Maldives and alike would not have thought of a world with out Microsoft Windows. Today things have changed.

Linux is no longer an alien OS in Maldives. It's run on many of the major companies in Maldives as application servers, DB servers, web servers and network servers (relating networking operations like firewalls, etc). While Windows is still dominant at most office environments that may change too. Examples like Resorts / Hotels might be moving to Linux too. There is many advantages to it, which I don't need to state here. The government is still reluctant to move to Linux, one major reason being lack of expertise and fear factors. I am certain that this will change soon too, once fresh blood comes in to places like NCIT.

On the desktop slowly people have started to use Linux as well. Application like Open Office can be credited for the adaptations. While the adaptation of Linux is slow Mac OS have gained a big popularity. While we still have some people who still run Windows on Mac's many use Mac OS X as the primary OS on their Mac's. I think more people are switching to Mac's these days.

While we still have those people who want to try each and every application designed for Windows in the world, who always have the excuse of CorelDRAW not running on other OS's (latest versions), etc. I guess a lot of us are looking into alternatives and sticking with them. Like we now know the sun will still rise without Maumoon, we know we can do without Windows too.

The application development methods have changed too. Mostly today we are moving to web based appliactions. Most of these applications are build on open standards and do not restrict to certain web browsers too. This is also a factor which has contributed to the change. Not everyone is a graphics designer, music composer or a gamer. For those people it's easy to switch on the desktop level. I still agree if you are a gamer Windows is the best choice.

People do often select alternatives not the defaults. One good example is firefox. If anyone has access to web server logs, or alike do look into the version of browses who hit your web space. I guess 90% and more is firefox. Which really proves a point.